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Belonging
Time felt like it was passing much more slowly as if we were experiencing a day of peace. It’s much better than running around like a busy man to work on this and that, but I had plenty of a headache despite this calm atmosphere. I was thinking of actually taking classes seriously and listening to what the teach had to say. Still, surprise surprise, I blinked once and the second period had ended already, with me resting my body on my desk. I could only see the back of Okamocchan, who sat at the desk in front of me. Right now, it was the middle of the fourth period…Meaning that if this was over, it’d finally be lunch break. Just a bit longer…
“Mhm…Hm?”
The teacher’s words sounded like sutra chanting as always, softly lulling me to sleep. But right as my eyelids were moving closer together, I felt a faint stimulation making my body twitch. Something was…hitting my back.
“…”
I somehow managed to raise and turn my head, when I spotted a certain beauty equally resting her body on her desk, staring at me in a daze. Oh my, it seems as if I have already fallen asleep. I guess all my fantasies and thoughts continued even into my dream. The beauty pushed her arm forward, tapping my back with the back of her pen, and rubbed it along my shirt.
[Ta. Ru.]
…Taru? Why would she write those two characters on my back? Taru like the barrel? Does she want to play Donkey Kong? Well, this is my dream, so it’s not like much of this has to make any sense. But as these thoughts raced through my head, I actually met eyes with the other sleepy pair behind me.
“…! …What?”
Ah, this ain’t a dream, huh? In an instant, the events of the previous day raced through my head like an F1 car. That reality felt more like a dream than anything. The girl I had experienced that unimaginable situation with now sat practically in my reach, and the absurdity of the situation made my consciousness feel more awake than after a solid eight hours of sleep.
At the same time, the beauty in question—Natsukawa—pulled her body backward as she started to panic. Her sleepy expression immediately changed into a displeased glare, as she looked at me. And yet, it seemed like she’d start crying any second. Unrelated to her sleepiness, she had been in an awfully disgruntled mood for a while now. This in particular started when I told her this morning that I would be eating lunch together with my former junior from work Ichinose-san.
I don’t quite know how such a coincidence could happen, but Natsukawa apparently was nice enough to consider inviting me to lunch, despite me being the guy who had practically been glued to her for the past few years. To me, it just looks like she doesn’t quite appreciate the fact I can’t make any plans with her. Personally speaking, I don’t get why she’s so angry. But of course, I wasn’t foolish enough to assume anything that a girl’s heart could be feeling right now. My best course of action most likely is to just keep my mouth shut and send her a smile for free. Which is what I did and then turned around to face forward again.
“…Dummy.”
I heard a faint mutter from behind me, which was extraordinarily effective. I barely got out of the encounter alive after suffering 9999 damage from a single hit.
*
Lunch break arrived, so I took my convenience store lunch out of my bag. I stood up and looked to my right—toward Ichinose-san—when another gaze stabbed me right through the chest. This…this makes it really hard for me to go…
Ashida still sat at her desk, only giving me half of a gaze, but what a powerful one it was. She also seemed crazily displeased at the fact that I had already made plans for lunch. As proof of that, I had already received an excessive amount of moai emotes spammed to my phone by her. What kind of emotion are you even trying to express with those? And the fact that they’re not stickers but actually emotes is what makes it seem so genuine. I could almost see Ashida’s face amongst them.
Now that things had developed this far, I could no longer turn around to the person sitting behind me. I’m a bit curious what kind of look Natsukawa is giving me right now…Is she glaring at me? A stare? But what would that look like? And isn’t that quite rare? Guess I have to turn right after all— GLANCE .
“…”
Oho? A stare as she looks up at me? Oh man, I can feel my nose getting hot, am I gonna have a nosebleed? Since she’d just look at me in exhaustion and disbelief so far, I’m about to cry because of this fresh expression. Even a Natsukawa specialist like me is weak against this. I don’t care about some shitty 2D character! You’re my SSR, Natsukawa!
“…What?” She grumbled.
“Huh?! Err, it’s…nothing, yeah.”
“…I see.”
What is this…feeling inside my chest? It’s making my heart race faster than when she simply talked with me out of kindness. Why am I happy? Is it because of Sis constantly torturing me? A bit of mental damage is the equivalent of a massage? Heh, I could tell the wildest stories as a comedian. Although I want to pull a joke, I can’t risk ruining her mood even further. I should simply meet up with Ichinose-san and rush outta the classroom. The longer I stay here, the more Ashida’s face will look like a moai statue.
“Ah…H-Hey!”
“Huh? Wh-What?”
“Well…”
I didn’t expect her to call out to me, which had my voice jump an octave out of shock. I was worried about having embarrassed myself, so I looked at Natsukawa, who looked at me like she was panicking.
“Can’t we just…eat together?”
“Together…So like, Ichinose-san, Ashida, you, and me?”
Natsukawa nodded.
“Together.” “Together.” “Together.” An endless loop played in my head (VA: Natsukawa). She actually said those words to me. They weren’t just an imagination like before. If I was alone in a sound-proof room right now, I might have started screaming at the top of my lungs while jumping around like a maniac, only to hit my head on the ceiling. What am I supposed to do here…?
No, calm down. I’m just not used to this, that’s all. Even if Natsukawa had no bad faith in this, I can clearly see that this is a trap. This is where the misunderstandings start. Proceed with caution and discretion. If you just nod along without thinking about anything, you’ll be in a lot of pain in this world. I somehow managed to calm down my inner excitement that almost burst out through my mouth and started thinking. Could such an event truly be possible?
First, let’s look at Ichinose-san. Thanks to her part-time job, she’s probably gotten good experience in dealing with customers, but that’s only when she’s in working mode. Her shyness hasn’t completely vanished or anything like that…I think. I doubt she’ll bluntly say “No” if I ask for her permission, especially since it’s just Natsukawa and Ashida, but she probably wouldn’t be very happy about it. She still hasn’t properly talked with these two either, so taking her personality into consideration, I think it’d be pretty hard on her. Especially because of Ashida.
Ashida’s not the noisy type that’ll just annoy others because of how lively she is, but she’s definitely more of a normie. Having her around will definitely not allow Ichinose-san to relax. That being said, if she can get along with Ashida, it’ll surely allow her to form more friendships, which would be more than welcome in my eyes.
Then there’s also Natsukawa. Though, I’m not particularly worried about those two getting along. Natsukawa isn’t as pushy as Ashida, and I’m sure she could easily take the lead. However, I doubt they could hold a proper conversation. If Ichinose-san was a bit more sloppy, it’d probably awaken Natsukawa’s inner older sister, though. Natsukawa x Ichinose-san…Not bad, not bad.
“I’ll go ask her.”
“Wh-Why do you sound so excited…?” Natsukawa blinked in confusion.
*
I headed over to Ichinose-san’s seat, which was already surrounded by Shirai and Okamocchan.
“I’m so hungry! My stomach grumbled during class.”
“Really? I didn’t hear that.”
“Oh, seriously? Thank god.”
“U-Um…”
Ichinose-san sat in the middle, seeming restless as she most likely wanted to say something. Guess she lost her chance to escape, huh? I think they both know that Ichinose-san wouldn’t approach them out of her own initiative, which is why they took this first step. Seeing how she’s blessed with such good friends is gonna make Papa cry…Wait, I’m not her papa.
Interestingly enough, the three girls together caused practically no ruckus or noise. Both Shirai-san and Okamocchan were the calm type, and Ichinose-san would only faintly move her lips upward whenever she smiled. What a blissful atmosphere…Personally, I feel like she’d be much better off just spending her lunch with them. Actually, let me join in.
“Hm? What’s up, Sajou-kun?”
“Ah…” Ichinose-san looked at me.
“Well…Maybe another time?”
“! N-No, um…”
I asked for her opinion from afar when Ichinose-san suddenly shot up from her seat. Hm, swift and nimble movement. She’s learned a lot at work, huh?
“Huh? What?”
“Ichinose-san and I promised to eat lunch together, y’know.”
“The hell, I didn’t hear about that.”
“Um…well…sorry?”
I know it might be hard to believe, but the way Okamocchan’s voice suddenly dropped to a chilly temperature, I found myself subconsciously apologizing. It seems like she’s seriously taken a liking to Ichinose-san in this short time. I can understand she’d be frustrated to see me take several steps at a time while she’s working hard every day to become friends with Ichinose-san. I remember gathering eraser crumbs back in grade school, only to completely blow a fuse when Sis threw them away without my permission. And I remember her putting me in a deadlock when I tried to hit her.
“Huh? No way! Mina-chan’s mine!”
“Excuse you? She’s mine,” I strongly protested.
“What?”
“O-Oh…”
Needless to say, I was fully intending on giving all of them my support in becoming friends with her, but when they start getting possessive, then even I’ll get sulky. Of course, I wasn’t serious about this in the slightest, but the time we spent together greatly surpassed whatever they had accumulated up to this point. I’m not gonna lose against Shirai-san or Okamocchan in this.
“Well, you can have her back right away, so could you just let me take her for today? Sasaki’s got nobody around him right now either, look.”
“O-Okay.”
“Then let’s go, Ichinose-san…Um, Ichinose-san?”
“Y-Yesh…”
…Something’s off about her. Well, I’m used to her blushing furiously when a random customer stood in front of her, all the way back from when she first started working with me. But was there any reason for her to feel this way now? Either way, I decided to grab her hand and pull her out of the classroom for now. Any more than this, and we’d never be able to have a proper conversation.
“You okay, Ichinose-san?”
“Y-Yes…” She put both hands in front of her chest, seemingly trying hard to calm herself down, so I waited for her.
All she wanted was to become independent from her brother, so I guess I don’t have to be this attentive to her problems. Then again, she asked to eat together today because she needed advice on something. This isn’t just us eating lunch, I forgot. Confirming that she had relaxed a bit, I once again spoke up.
“Did you already decide where you wanted to eat today?”
“Ah, um…the material room of the library…”
“The library…Oh yeah, you joined the library committee, right? But won’t that be full with the other committee members? And can we even eat there?”
“Um…if it’s the material room, then it’s allowed…There’s gonna be Senpai there, but she usually brings someone with her, too…”
“I…I see…”
To my surprise, she had already thought of a place to eat at. I had trouble hiding my shock. And judging from her attitude, that Senpai of hers is probably taking another girl with her to that library room, so…wouldn’t it be problematic if she suddenly waltzed in there with a guy like me?
“So…Well…Ichinose-san.”
“?”
“Um…You probably asked me to eat lunch together ‘cause you got something to talk about…But can I bring people with me? If it’s something private, then I’ll say no to those two, though.”
“Um, who are those two…?”
“Natsukawa and…Ashida…”
“……”
Ichinose-san’s mouth opened slightly only for her to end up silent. I don’t remember doing anything devious, and yet I’m feeling so awkward. Or…maybe this is something bad? To Ichinose-san, I might seem like a devil, because I’m trying to have two practical strangers tag along when she already made plans with me. Not to mention that this material room probably doesn’t offer much space for a lot of people. I guess I should say no after all. And also for my own sanity, being alone with three girls ain’t too good.
“All right, I’ll tell those two we can eat another time—”
“No…it’s fine.”
“Huh?”
“I also…wanted to talk with them at least once…”
“…Huh?”
…What? Ichinose-san wants to…talk with Natsukawa and Ashida…? Out of her own initiative…? Why do I feel like throwing a party?
“O-Okay, I’ll tell those two.”
“Thanks…”
While heading over to Natsukawa’s seat, I felt the urge to cover my eyes. Ugh…Ichinose-san has grown so much…I’m seriously gonna cry. I was worried that she might end up a lonesome bookworm again after we go up a year, but I guess she’ll be fine. It seems like she’s slowly but steadily getting used to Okamocchan and Shirai-san, as well. That’s such a relief.
“Natsukawa! Ichinose-san said she’s fine with…Natsukawa?”
“…”
When I returned, I was greeted by Natsukawa pouting, as she had her face turned towards the window with a mightily displeased gaze. And next to her sat Ashida, who held her face like she couldn’t believe what just happened.
“Huh? Ashida, did you and Natsukawa have a fight? C’mon, you gotta apologize!”
“Sajocchi…We heard everything.”
“Huh? Oh, okay…”
…Okay?